For all of you Sopranos fans who are still fascinated by the mob and miss the drama within mafia families, late last month Koch Vision released the 1998 Robert De Niro produced TV movie Witness to the Mob, a true crime adaptation of the book Underboss about the rise and fall of mobster Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, who turned state’s evidence against his high-profile boss, John Gotti. As far as modern mob stories go, Sammy’s life in the Gambino crime family has become a legend after he chose to turn on those who helped him make it to the top of the New York mafia.

Although it’s nice to romanticize about Sammy’s story so many years later, the fact remains that Gotti’s friend rose through the ranks of the New York mob by fulfilling contract hits and whacking anyone in the family that the bosses wanted “gone,” including friends, “family”, and the demise of his former boss, Paul Castelano. But that’s why Gravano rose through the ranks so quickly. He was a guy you could depend on. But to the unknowing heads of the Gambino family, Gravano was also a guy the Feds could depend on, too.

If you can remember back to the ‘80s and the news images of John Gotti walking through the streets of New York like a local hero, it was almost as if everyone expected that the law would never catch up to the Gambino boss. So many charges were leveled against Gotti for a variety of crimes but rarely did they ever stick, and for the obvious reasons why many mobsters walk free. That’s why he was called “The Teflon Don”. But when Gotti’s close friend began to see that people are the law were watching them thanks the spotlight of the media attention brought on by his boss, it wasn’t long before Sammy would be facing life behind bars. But when Gravano learned that Gotti was about to turn the tables on him after the two were arrested, Sammy cooperated with the Feds and agreed to help bring the family down in one of the most memorable and famous mob take downs in history.

For an NBC TV movie made in 1998, which holds up extremely well, you don’t get the same creative freedom as a feature film along the lines of Goodfellas or The Godfather. Because of the medium, which restricts the violence and realism that took place in the real life story, Witness to the Mob can’t be considered one of the greatest mob films of all time. And while it does track the real story behind Gravano’s turn on the Gambino family, the movie does take many liberties for entertainment effect. But with a cast that includes Nick Turturro in the role of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, Tom Sizemore as John Gotti, Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos, Vincent Pastore, Debi Mazar, Abe Vigoda, Frank Vincent, even legendary ‘50s singer Frankie Valli, Witness to the Mob is as good as mob TV movies get. Although the October DVD release is a 2-Disc “movie only” set without any extras, it’s a great movie to fill some of the void left behind by The Sopranos.